


The Littlest Mermaid

by snowbryneich



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 04:44:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11570586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowbryneich/pseuds/snowbryneich
Summary: Jack's first experience babysitting doesn't go so well.





	The Littlest Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sleepylotus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepylotus/gifts).



> This fic is for the lovely sleepylotus - Happy Birthday, my dear. 
> 
> It was inspired by this [lovely art](http://bormoglot.deviantart.com/art/My-only-love-is-the-sea-592215759) by bormoglot

Jack’s relationship with the Pirate King was complicated. It always had been in truth but in time they had found a rhythm.

At first, he had visited her chambers in Shipwreck Cove only when invited. He had no doubt she would turn him away if it suited her and her moods. And of course, it was not as if she lived alone. Young Henry placed his own demands on her time. The younger whelp liked Uncle Jack though and Elizabeth often had a nurse for him – the women she hired never seemed to last long in the position but there were always more for hire.

It had been a year after their affair had started. No, not started, been consummated that Elizabeth had curled up in his arms after a rather active night and murmured. “Must I always send for you?” She had been sleepy and unguarded and since then Jack had started to make the arduous climb without invitation. It almost always paid off.  He’d been turned away once because Henry had been in the midst of a temper tantrum that Jack had not been allowed to bribe him out of. And the odd occasion she had not been there – which was Jack’s own fault in truth. It was easy enough to find the location of the Pirate King if one asked. Elizabeth took the running of her kingdom seriously.

 

That caused its own issues. There were numerous pirates who were not keen on the idea of rules. And certainly, not rules laid down by a woman. Elizabeth’s first year had been filled with challenges. Duels fought on the beach. But being challenged Elizabeth had the choice of weapon and she had a keen eye, quick reflexes and better-maintained pistols than most men. Nor did she hold back and the challenges slowed once she had shot several men in the throat.

Slowed but did not stop. And of course, the challenges did not stop Elizabeth from making shipwreck cove a haven of equality. If piracy was to be freedom then she would have it be freedom for all. No matter who objected.

 

If Jack was in the cove she always sought him out the night before a duel. She was different then - often frantic in her need. It reminded him uncomfortably of the first kiss they had shared before she fed him to the Kraken, something Jack worked hard to forget about. It was the same knowledge she had kept to herself then and that they both knew now. That this might be the last kiss they shared. Jack found himself wishing she would not risk herself though he had the sense not to say so. On certain subjects, Elizabeth would not be gainsaid.

Shipwreck Cove was one, the other was her son. “Do not give him rum.” “Don’t give him a sword.” Sometimes Jack was not even permitted to bribe the boy with sweets. It was _unreasonable_.

Only a few of their fellow pirates were trusted with the care of Henry when a nurse was not available. Anamaria, Mistress Ching, Mr Gibbs – in a pinch. Jack was nominally on the list he was assured but he’d never been asked. Not that he had any complaints. Not until a chance encounter with Anamaria in Nassau had made it clear why he had never been asked.

“The others on the list are trusted not to betray her and to keep Henry safe,” she had said, her dark eyes laughing at him. “You only have one of those traits.”

Jack had been offended. “Which one?” he had asked. But Anamaria had only rolled her eyes at him and had not answered.

 

The next time Jack was back in Shipwreck, it became apparent that while Elizabeth had faith in his loyalty she thought that a two-year-old could outwit him! A two-year-old that was half Turner no less.

Jack had had worse insults he supposed including off Elizabeth herself but still it rankled. Right up until he was at her door and she had dragged him inside with a little more fervour than usual.

If she had not made it clear with desperate kisses the instant he darkened her door what sort of night this was, he might very well have challenged her on that particular point. But Jack had little will power when it came to Lizzy as it was – he had none when she was needy like this. When she wrapped herself round him in nothing but a silk kimono – he can tell there was nothing beneath it. He could feel the heat of her skin through the silk and he picked her off her feet and took her to the great bed in the main cabin.

Elizabeth seemed to surrender to him when they reached the bed – she let him take the kimono and tangled her hands in his hair as his mouth explored her thoroughly. He focussed on her breasts as her breath quickened and when she murmured “ _Please_ ,” Jack decided to have mercy and kissed his way down her stomach where Elizabeth had parted her legs eagerly for him as he bent to taste her salt sweet of her. Elizabeth moaned his name and he grinned then worked his tongue against her until she arched and pleaded for mercy, pulling his hair and calling him “Impossible man.”

Jack slipped back up her body and let Elizabeth quick fingers do the work of unfastening his clothing while he tugged her close for kisses and she was grinning at his quick intake of breath when her hand slipped into his breeches to caress him. “Your turn,” she said, pushing him into the pillows half dressed with only his cock freed from his breeches as she leaned down to take as much of him in her mouth as she could. While Elizabeth was fond of driving him just as mad as he did her like this it did not often feature on nights like this and Jack found him enjoyment a little bit diminished by wondering what Elizabeth was up to. But only a little – he had been the one who had shown Elizabeth the joy of oral pleasure for both women and men and she had been a very quick study.

When she had spent some time teasing him by taking him to the edge and back before she finally ceased being wicked and flicked her tongue against him in a way he could not resist. Perhaps he had taught her a little too well. After that, she curled up next to him and half-heartedly dragged at his clothing. Jack stripped down to his shirt and threw the kimono back to her. The young whelp was just next door and that usually precluded sleeping nude if he stayed the night. It did not mean he wouldn’t be able to convince her out of it again. The lad slept like a stone even though Lizzy wouldn’t put him to bed with a tot of rum like every other mother Jack had known.

 

Lizzy shrugged the oriental silk back on and slipped into his arms. He kissed his hair. “Who this time?” he asked.

“Montauband,” Elizabeth said moodily. “He thinks if he comes in with a new crew of slaves every time I will buy them off him. Easy money to his mind. Poor wretches.” Elizabeth had forbidden pirates who kept to the code from keeping slaves as crew members. Freed slaves who had signed the articles were permitted of course, but no man or woman who called Shipwreck Cove home would own another.

“It was a mistake to pay any of them off in the first place.” She added moodily. An attempt to have her measure pass without bloodshed – Elizabeth had bought and freed any slave crews already in Shipwreck when she had made her proclamation. “I told him he knew the rules and have had them freed. Hence.” She shrugged and Jack was drawn to the scar on her shoulder. She had not come out of all her duels unscathed and he pressed a kiss to the silk over the round scar from the bullet she had taken in her second - no her third duel. “Montauband is a terrible shot.” Jack offered. “Do you have a second?”

“Tai Huang,” she told him. As she had told him before – not that Jack was eager to duel not even a fop like Montauband. “You need not worry yourself,” she said. “I will gladly shoot him. He has bought the dregs of the slave market in an attempt extort me – half of them did not survive the journey. I am looking forward to shooting him.”

“Perhaps I will come and watch,” Jack said. He was not sure how much of this was an act – Elizabeth had fretted over the previous deaths, though she had tried to hide that from him - considering. She did not like to kill without reason.  Jack had tried to take that as what comfort it could be in the circumstances. But Elizabeth bit her lip and looked hopeful instead and Jack knew she wanted something though he could not guess what. He considered making her ask but then it was late and she was nearly naked and Jack was for once not in the mood for games. “Unless you have other plans for me, your nibs?”

“I have no-one to watch Henry,” she said. “Anamaria and Mistress Ching are at sea and well, he is getting to be too much for Mr Gibbs. He can’t keep up with him.”

That did not make sense to Jack. Henry could be loud of course, but he seemed to stay in mostly one spot in Jack’s experience. “Didn’t think I was trusted with the nipper,” he said tugging her close to him. “But he can spend a morning with Uncle Jack.” Elizabeth laughed and kissed him and pressed him into the pillows determined to make his acquiescence worthwhile.

 

Jack regretted it a little the next morning. Henry was still loud and did not at all want to seem to spend time with Uncle Jack. Henry had screeched for his mother all the way to the _Pearl_. Elizabeth had as an extra measure asked Jack to take Henry there and then had added a demand that if the worse came to worse he was to take Henry to England where she had family that would take him in. She had kissed him goodbye and not even let him object to these orders.

It got worse when Jack put Henry down. The lad clearly had a head for danger and had headed straight for the rail at a speed that had surprised Jack. Surely, he had only been dragging himself along the furniture the last time Jack had looked. “Come here,” he said firmly.

“No,” said Henry. It was apart from the screaming for Elizabeth the only word the boy had uttered that morning. Jack knew perfectly well he could say, Jack. And sea and pearl. And a smattering of other words that occasionally were full sentences that only Elizabeth could comprehend.

He could lock the boy in his cabin, Jack thought. That would work, wouldn’t it? It was safe. Mostly. Hardly any weapons in there.

It was soon apparent that Henry could find numerous ways to make Jack’s cabin dangerous. Not only did he run _everywhere_ he was prone to climbing. Jack tied him to a chair – loosely - and sent Marty to find Joshamee Gibbs. Clearly, expert advice was needed.

 

He returned to the cabin to find that Henry had slipped the ropes, unearthed a chest of trinkets from the desk and then climbed onto Jack’s bed where he was currently attempting to eat his ill-gotten gains.

“Oi,” said Jack annoyed. “Stop that. Your mother fed you. I watched her.” Henry coughed and Jack belatedly realised that there was a good chance the lad might choke.

Once Jack had fished the gold coins out of Henry’s mouth and been bitten for his trouble Henry was crying in earnest. “Mate you could have the shiny,” Jack said. He could get it back off Lizzy and he was not – for the moment- hard up for cash. “But not if you are going to eat it. Savvy?”

“Noooo,” wailed Henry still outraged. Jack had given in and given him a tot of rum then another tot and then Henry finally calmed. Jack put the money back in the chest and took Henry to the galley where he gave him a bit of hardtack covered in honey. The biscuit was too tough for him but Henry would only lick the honey off anyway and he seemed content at last.

The only positive about it was looking after Henry was so much work, Jack had barely had a chance to worry about Elizabeth.

 

But it was only when Jack tried to wipe away the excess of honey that he noticed the necklace around Henry’s neck. That was an old thing. Jack had had it years. It had a small pearl on it – tiny but a green so dark it was almost black. A mermaid pearl, Jack had been told from the sailor he had won it off had told him. Jack had thought it almost a lucky charm especially when he had got the Pearl back after all those years and it had still been in his cabin. But when he took the chain off Henry (despite the young whelp’s objections,) the chain was bare. The pearl was gone.

Jack looked at the chain. Then he looked at Henry. Henry laughed in his face and then was off again – he ran right into Joshamee Gibbs who scooped him in a matter that looked entirely too easy given the effort Jack had made to catch the boy.

“He’s eaten my pearl,” he told Joshamee. “Is there nothing he won’t put in his mouth.”

“Anything you want him to for the most part,” Joshamee said as if this was obvious. "Mother's love! Jack. Why would you let him near anything shiny.”

“Let him!” Jack said outraged. “He doesn’t listen to a word I say.”

“No,” said Henry happily.

“Ah well,” Joshamee said bouncing Henry and seeming utterly unperturbed by how sticky Henry was. “What goes in, must come out.”

It took a moment for Jack to parse that meaning and when he did he wrinkled his nose in disgust. He would get Elizabeth to do that – but then he would have to explain. And then Henry began to cry again and squirm in Joshamee’s arms but when he was set down he flopped to one side and cried harder.

And then he kicked up his shirt and Jack and Joshamee stared at the pearlescent fishtail coming from under Henry’s shirt. The scales were almost the exact shade the pearl had been and ended in a bright red fin.

“What kind of pearl did you say it was?” Joshamee asked after a long moment.

 

* * *

 

They eventually settled Henry by filling a tub with seawater on the quarter deck and setting him in it. Henry splashed and swam and though he panicked Jack several times by slipping under the water entirely he could clearly breathe.

“She’s going to murder me,” Jack said. Joshamee said nothing. It was not as if he could argue with the sentiment.

 

Henry surfaced long enough to spit water at the pair of them and then ducked under the water with a splash.

“He seems happy?” Jack said hopefully. He was certainly easier to watch like this. He still could not see that argument washing with Elizabeth.

 

There was a shout from the docks and Jack turned to see Tai Huang standing waiting for permission to become aboard. But no Elizabeth and Jack suddenly wanted nothing more than the chance to confess he had turned her son into a mermaid – merman – merbaby.

“Where is Elizabeth?” he spat coming to the rail.

“Montauband is dead.” Tai Huang said – which was not what Jack has asked. “The King is dealing with his crew. You keep the boy a while longer eh?”

“Is she hurt?” Jack asked only for Joshamee to elbow him.

“The lad’s fine here,” he called. “Enjoying the ship. Tell his mum he’s fine.” He gave Jack a very pointed look.

“Don’t be daft Jack,” Joshamee said. “Elizabeth is stubborn – but she won’t go off to battle hurt. Not since Henry came along anyway”

Jack was not as convinced but she had won. That would have to be enough for now and they turned their attention back to the matter of Henry and his newly acquired aquatic state.

Everyone had heard of mermaid pearls of course. No-one had heard of them working. So how would one go about getting it undone? It was not as if they could go to Tia Dalma on account of her being Calypso and being distinctly unappreciative of this Brethren court despite them being the ones to release her.

 

In the end, after much debate, they came to a resolution by accident. Henry had begun to wail again. Hungry apparently according to the child minding expertise of Joshamee Gibbs. Not that you would know it – he turned his nose up at any offered food splashing in the tub and getting more and more upset until Jack was forced to scoop up the damp mertoddler and bounce him.

“What do mermaids eat then?” he said. 

“Men,” Joshamee had muttered and Jack had heard the same. But if Henry was fishtailed he didn’t seem to have developed fangs and he showed less interest in biting Jack now than he had before he had a tail.

In the end, it was decided meat was the closest that he was going to get and Henry happily made his way through most of a what turned out to be a barely cooked steak. That was the last time Jack let Joshamee in the galley – but Cotton was not here and so needs must.

 

It turned out that Joshamee’s cooking was worse even than jack thought – Henry brought the entire lot back up within ten minutes. Jack’s boots were ruined but there glinting in the pile of vomit was the pearl. Then Henry ran away on his newly reaquired legs utterly naked. Jack left Mr Gibbs in charge of washing both child and pearl and deck and set off in search of news of Elizabeth.

 

There was a distinct air of surprise on Elizabeth’s face that evening when she came to retrieve Henry and Jack claimed the day a roaring success. He decided in the circumstances he would be the bigger person and not take offence. Especially when he was invited to accompany them home. “Henry fish, Mama,” Henry told her repeatedly despite numerous sweets that Jack had fed him in bribes on the strict condition his adventure on the Pearl be kept between them.

“Did you,” Elizabeth said laughing. “I can smell it on you.” Jack waggled his eyebrows at Henry. Ha!

He might have gotten away with it too. If Elizabeth had not decided that Henry smelt of fish such that she would give him a bath. Jack thought nothing of it – not until there was a shriek from the next room and Elizabeth appeared with a Henry bundled in a towel the fish tail poking out.

 Oh hell. She’d put him in water.

“Jack Sparrow! What have you done to my son!” Elizabeth demanded.

“Lizzy love, “Jack said carefully. “I am absolutely positively certain it’s a temporary situation,” Jack assured. Indeed Henry gave a sudden squawk and suddenly had legs again. But Jack was quite sure that Elizabeth’s temper would not be nearly so temporary.

 


End file.
